Jalapeño sausage–stuffed quail, lemon-pepper-marinated fried chicken: The trend for most of the best new restaurants last year was comfort food with pizzazz. But then along came Uchiko to wow us with its mouthwatering take on Japanese fusion. Who says you can’t buck a trend?

During his lifetime, he captivated Houston with his courtroom brilliance, outsized ambition, and high-dollar lifestyle. But in the year since John O’Quinn’s tragic death, a bitter estate battle has revealed who he really was.

Reporter

1. Merry Heart TeaRoom In this quaint lunch spot, men are about as scarce as empty seats. Women, on the other hand, flock here for the exact reasons the guys steer clear: to share gossip while snacking on the signature “toasties” (essentially croutons with a kick), to eat dainty portions of King Ranch chicken crepes, …

Reed received her Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy from Texas Woman’s University and has been practicing in Dallas for nearly 25 years. She counsels as many as 25 couples per week. I can’t save a marriage. Only the couple can do that. My job is to help people create the marriage they want. Sometimes …

Rites of passage dot the path to becoming a true Texan—riding a horse, having your picture taken with Big Tex—but few are as iconic as learning to fire a rifle. Although there are a variety of types, beginners often train with a .22-caliber. “That’s because there’s minimal recoil, and the gun and its shells are …

Web

How tempting must it have been for David Uygur to keep doing what he was doing at Lola. After all, the 37-year-old Dallas chef had amassed quite a cult following, especially at the restaurant’s tiny Tasting Room at Lola. So admired were his eclectic, French-based dishes that when Lola’s owner decided to close the place, …

Miscellany

This issue went to press four days before the start of the most important legislative session of our lifetime, when lawmakers face, in addition to the testy, high-stakes business of redistricting and the supercharged debate over immigration and voter ID, an epic fiscal crisis: a budget shortfall of up to $25 billion. The decisions made …

Full of Beans You failed to list a restaurant that is not in any way fancy but has the best Tex-Mex food: El Mercado on North Burnet Road in Austin is the place I mean [“Let’s Have Mex-Tex,” December 2010]. The tortilla chips are tasty, the service is excellent, and the food is reasonably priced. …